Then FBI Director James Comey (right), shaking hands with the new president.

In case you missed it, Donald Trump’s best buddy, Lyin’ Jim Comey, has a painfully candid new memoir hitting the bookshelves this week. This is the first book written by anyone holding high office that was unfortunate enough to work under the transition from President Obama to the current Angry Cheeto now barricaded inside the Oval Office.

Comey is a polarizing figure in this bizarre espionage thriller unfolding in real time involving the Trump campaign and the Russian interference with the 2016 elections. For understandable yet puzzling reasons both the Obama administration and Comey felt it better not to highlight evidence of Russian meddling nor that candidate Trump was under a parallel investigation for his campaign’s contact with Russian operatives.

Supposedly this was because Hillary Clinton appeared poised to win regardless and neither Obama or Comey wanted any indication that sitting powers were attempting to influence the outcome. In retrospect it’s now considered by many that Comey’s peculiar decision to publicly announce the reopening of the investigation into Clinton’s emails mere days before the election was a decisive factor in Trump’s victory.

With this as the backdrop Comey penned “A Higher Loyalty,” aimed at setting the record straight after his controversial firing. The overarching takeaway is that Trump is a corrupt individual to his core, morally bankrupt, and incapable of telling the truth about even the most mundane items.

In “A Higher Loyalty,” Comey writes that the president is “unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional values. His leadership is transactional, ego driven and about personal loyalty.” He compares Trump to the mob bosses he use to prosecute.

This is interesting when considering Special Prosecutor Mueller’s investigation is compared to previous government inquiries into the prosecution of drug cartels and organized crime families. Just last week federal agents were issued search warrants through the Justice Department and the courts to raid the office, home and hotel room of Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen.

“The silent circle of assent. The boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The us-versus-them worldview. The lying about all things, large and small, in service to some code of loyalty that put organization above morality and above the truth,” Comey wrote in describing Trump.

Ultimately this comes down to integrity, to credibility, in terms of whether Comey’s version of events are believed or the alternate reality of Donald Trump. By all accounts Jim Comey was a dedicated civil servant that strived and achieved keeping America safer.

That can’t be said for Trump. It’s hard to even find a Republican that will defend the president’s behavior. It’s all porn stars, playboy models, golden showers, sexual assault allegations, collusion with Russians, fathering illegitimate children with employees, ripping off business partners, declaring bankruptcy and a whole lot of legal battles.

I stand whole heartedly with James Comey when he writes, “What is happening now is not normal. It is not fake news. It is not okay.”